Latest FX News

In a speech in New York last night, Timothy Massad, chair of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) argued that the changing nature of liquidity is not principally caused by regulation.
Discussing the various impacts of the UK decision to leave the European Union on June 23, Massad said, when discussing liquidity in derivatives markets, that during the vote and immediate aftermath prices did not disappear and market depth was good.
However he added, “We must also recognise that liquidity today has changed. There is an iconic model of liquidity: traditional dealers who use their balance sheets to make a market for their customers regardless of price. Dealers who will catch the proverbial “falling knife”— that is, they stand ready to buy even if prices are rapidly falling. That is not how our markets work today.”

Thomson Reuters has reported a month-on-month decline in overall FX volumes but a rise on spot activity – albeit at a lower pace than other FX trading venue providers.
The firm says that spot FX activity was $101 billion per day, a 6.3% increase month-on-month and a 12.2% increase from November 2015.
By contrast, Thomson Reuters’ OTC rivals all witnessed significant month-on-month and year-on year growth with EBS BrokerTec rising 37% and 52% respectively; Hotspot 20.1% and 35.7%; FXSpotStream 30.4% and 69.1%; FastMatch 25.7% and 100%; and GTX 19% and 62% respectively.

Natasha Uberoi joined EBS BrokerTec as US new business sales head.
Although a spokesperson for the platform declines to comment on the hire, Profit & Loss understands that Uberoi started in her new role, based in New York, this week.
Uberoi left Bats Global Markets in July, having been with the firm for just over a year. Prior to that she worked at Bank of America, where she was a vice president, FX sales. Before joining Bank of America in 2013

Bloomberg has launched executable streaming non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) on FXGO, its global foreign exchange trading platform.
Standard Chartered Bank (StanChart) will be the first liquidity provider to participate. Bloomberg says that the new offering will allow the bank to contribute executable pricing across a wide range of Asian and Latin American non-deliverable currencies to meet the needs of its corporate and institutional clients.
The solution integrates Bloomberg's FX execution and straight-through processing (STP) tools with StanChart’s liquidity. It’s designed to offer end-to-end workflow for NDF trading to the bank’s clients that wish to execute via the Bloomberg Terminal.

FastMatch has made its proprietary algorithmic and transaction cost analysis (TCA) services available to all its subscribers.
The firm has been offering algorithmic trading to asset managers via its AgencyFX product for the past 18 months to satisfy increasing demand from this customer segment for algorithmic execution products.
Now it will be offering it to both buy and sell side users of the platform. Clients using FastMatch algorithms will receive automated TCA reports upon completion of their orders showing the algorithmic execution performance versus arrival price, FastMatch midpoint and other benchmarks.

Yesterday’s referendum decision in Italy to reject changes to the Italian constitution, and the subsequent offer to resign on the part of Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, could spell trouble for the future of the euro, warn economic strategists.
Profit & Loss reported yesterday that the euro was under pressure following the referendum decision, but on Monday it recovered. Despite this, Jason Leinwand, co-founder and CEO of FirstLine FX, thinks that the currency is overvalued given the potential political threats in Europe.

Comments made Sunday by US president-elect Donald Trump on Twitter have sparked fresh speculation as to whether his administration will label China a currency manipulator once he is in office.
China lodged a formal complaint to the US government after it emerged that Trump held a phone call with the President of Taiwan on Friday, in breach of decades of diplomatic protocol.
“I can tell you that the Chinese side has lodged solemn representations with the relevant party on the US side both in Beijing and Washington. China has got its message across to the world as a whole with regard to Taiwan-related issues. The US side, president-elect Trump's team included, is also fully aware of China's solemn attitude on the issue,” said the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Lu Kang, in a press conference today.

Profit & Loss understands that Andrew Brown, global head of foreign exchange, and Alan “Shoulders” Clarke, global FX product manager, are to leave Spanish bank BBVA at the end of the year.
The departures are part of a plan recommended by the two men to move the global FX roles back to the Madrid head office, according to sources familiar with the matter. As part of this change, both will leave.
BBVA did not respond to enquiries by press time but is believed to have agreed to the departure of two men who have overseen solid growth in its foreign exchange business.

Thomson Reuters has partnered with BestX to enable buy-side participants using its FXall and FX Trading platforms to streamline analysis of transaction costs, helping them define, achieve and demonstrate best execution.
Through the partnership Thomson Reuters will offer connectivity to the independent transaction cost analysis (TCA) service from BestX from its FXall and FX Trading desktops.
Thomson Reuters customers will be able to have their trades sent automatically to BestX for independent post-trade transaction cost analysis, and also have a single sign-on desktop integration.

Matt Vickerman has left Sun Trading in Chicago, where he was head of business development, covering the FX and fixed income markets.
Vickerman had been at Sun Trading since 2009, prior to which he worked at RBS within the FX and rates prime brokerage unit at the bank.